JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation has activated its third train inspection portal, the railroad said today (Tuesday, Feb. 28).
The three inspection portals — which use advanced imaging and analysis technology — are all located on lines that radiate out from CSX’s yard at Waycross, Ga.
“CSX strategically positioned the three TIPs near Waycross as it is a hump yard and one of our busiest yards by volume,” spokeswoman Cindy Schild says. “The latest TIP … has 20 dynamic high speed cameras watching up to 20 trains each day. Using this machine vision technology helps us see potential problems before they occur, catching some that would be hard to see with a human eye. We will continue to explore advancing innovative technological approaches to help keep our network and communities where we operate safe.”
The newest portal is northeast of the Waycross terminal. The first portal opened in 2019 southeast of Waycross, and the second was added on the Fitzgerald Subdivision northwest of Waycross.
The portals produce ultra-high resolution 360-degree scans of trains passing through at track speed. Machine vision technology identifies defects and automatically flags cars that need repairs.
Glad to see a siding so they can set BO cars right there.
Seeing how some of these are going to be remote, such as this one, and I’m sure CSX has looked into this, but what about physical security? There are too many people out there who are more than willing to go out of their way to vandalize something like this, to make their “mark”. I mean, hell, you have people shooting at power transformer stations.
Even with that in mind, great idea!
A recap of the success of the two initial TIP sites would be helpful and enlightening.
Next headline, “CSX engineers discover they glow at night from constant irradiation”
Actually, if their detection rate is very high, I would be putting these things all over their network.
CSX PR department is hard at work.
But the class 1 lobbyists are all working overtime now.